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Unless you’re independently wealthy, you’ll soon discover that the best way to pay for a private school education is to budget for it. A private school education can cost anywhere from $3000 on up per year. Some private schools cost almost $30,000 a year to attend. Creating a budget is the easiest way to make sure that you can pay for your private school tuition, uniforms, books and other related costs.
Budgeting to pay for a private school is much the same as budgeting to pay for anything else whether it is a wedding, a house or a vacation. Here a few steps to help you get started:
Determine your expenses. You won’t know how much you have to budget for unless you write down all of your expected expenses. These include tuition, books, uniforms and supplies. Do you need to pay tuition upfront or are there tuition plans that will allow you to make payments monthly or quarterly? What about uniforms, books and supplies? Are there other expenses you’re overlooking? Write everything down and then calculate how much you’ll need to save on a monthly basis.
Here’s an example. Say, tuition costs $3000; books cost $200; registration is $100; uniforms are $100 and supplies cost $50 for a total of $3,450 per year. That means, over a one-year period, you’ll need to put aside $287.50 per month to meet these costs. Broken down further, if you get paid biweekly, you’ll need to save $143.75 from every check. How will you do this?
If you have money set aside to pay for private school subtract this amount from what you need to save each month. Then, decide where in your budget to cut back and start now. You’ll need to take a hard look at where you spend your money and make cuts as necessary. Would that money you spend every morning on coffee and a doughnut be better spent going towards your tuition fund? Remember, everyone has wants and needs. Needs are things like groceries, dog food, rent and gas. Wants are things like lottery tickets, magazines and other superfluous items. In order to create a successful budget, there is no getting around having to cut back on the wants so that you can meet your needs. This is the only way you’re going to be able to budget to pay for private school.
If you still don’t have enough money in your budget to pay for private school, you may have to consider taking out a loan, selling assets, or figuring out a way to increase your income by taking on a second job or doing freelance work.
However, if you are able to fit private school into your budget and if you’re putting away money for it into a savings account, consider putting the money in an account that will give you the highest possible interest. Some of the money you’ve saved that is not immediately needed for payments might be able to be invested in money markets or short-term CDs. If there is a longer period of time before you begin paying for private school consider investing a portion of set-aside money in stocks, bonds or mutual funds.
Budgeting is not easy and sticking to a budget is even harder, but if you’re determined to pay for private school, then budgeting is the best way that you’ll be able to reach your goal.
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